Meanwhile, in Florida

No good deed goes unpunished.

A homeless Hawthorne man was arrested Sunday night after he was accused of slapping an Alachua County sheriff's deputy who had given him a ride from Hawthorne to Waldo. At 8:39 p.m., ASO deputies were called to an Alachua County Fire Rescue Station in Hawthorne to help a drunken man identified as 57-year-old Rodney Timothy Shaw, according to an arrest report. ACFR paramedics told a deputy that Shaw did not need medical attention but did not want to walk to his sister's home nearby. The deputy agreed to give him a lift there. The deputy brought Shaw to his sister's house, and she refused to allow him inside. Shaw then asked for a ride to the Classic Inn in Waldo, about eight miles away, the report states. The deputy agreed to help him. But after they arrived at the motel, at 14925 NE U.S. 301, Shaw got out, turned to the deputy, uttered an obscenity and slapped him in the forearm, the report states. “The defendant laughed and started to walk away,” the deputy wrote in the report. The deputy placed Shaw in handcuffs and booked him into the Alachua County jail on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony. As of Monday afternoon, Shaw remained in custody in lieu of $20,000 bond. According to Alachua County court records, he has faced several charges over the past 30 years, ranging from robbery to driving without a valid license. Florida Department of Corrections records show Shaw served 10 prison sentences from 1975 to 2013 and has been previously convicted on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer.